Kingdom Tower Saudi Arabia

Okay well that didn't take long. Dubai built the largest tower, Burj Khalifa, and of course someone was going to take the spot. I thought it would be China but looks like it's going to be Saudi Arabia will take the spot of tallest tower in the world. Prince Alwaleed is the behind this new investment project, called Kingdom tower, which will be built in Jeddah, Saudia Arabia and cost $1.2 billion. No biggie. At least they're putting all that oil money into something right? So how tall is it exactly? About 3280 feet, so look at the image at the bottom of this post to put it more into perspective. Empire state building is a baby in comparison haha. I believe this consistent trend of taller and taller structures is highly influenced by cultural ego and dominance. We're not exactly running out of land that's forcing us to build vertically. Especially in the gulf, the UAE and Saudi Arabia have somewhat of a historical tension in which country can exert more influence and power over the rest of the gulf countries. Most notably, the most recent plan for the gulf to become more integrated with one currency similar to the euro for the european union was halted when Saudi Arabia and UAE could not come to an agreement over which country would host the region's central bank headquarters. However, the gulf still remains politically and culturally integrated. 

Don't be so shocked that this male arab ego goes far beyond it's architecture and borders. Gulf countries have begun to compete through European soccer clubs. Some including Qatar's purchase of Paris Saint-German, Dubai(UAE) purchase of Leeds United, Abu Dhabi purchase of Manchester City and Real Madrid. 

Lets go back to talking about Saudi Arabia’s Kingdom Tower. There’s no skyscrapers in Saudi Arabia even close to this magnitude however the construction of this single project alone has already spurred a 20 billion redevelopment plan on other projects on Jeddah's Red Sea Waterfront. The tower will have my favorite hotel, Four Seasons, along with the highest observatory deck in the world. You can take one of the 60 elevators to get up there, if you’re not afraid of heights of course. As you can see, the competition seems to be pretty beneficial to everyone. The oil rich gulf nations seem to be diversifying their economies away from oil and constructing projects like Kingdom Tower will undoubtedly create jobs and additional housing for its citizens.

What is interesting about Saudi Arabia in comparison to most countries is that there are restrictions on tourism. Usually, people are only allowed to visit if they are going for their Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca or they know someone there that would allow them into the country. It seems Alwaleed has tourism on his mind with this project and hopefully it will influence change in the strict policy of Saudi Arabia on tourism. Alwaleed’s wife, Princess Ameera Al-Taweel, has been a strong advocate for woman’s rights in the kingdom and is often praised as a public figure in the West.